1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for inputting information into a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated login input apparatus and method in a portable terminal, by which a password having a high encryption level is set by using a coordinate system and a tilt sensor that is included in the portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a personalized Internet service, such as a Social Networking Service (SNS), is used in a portable terminal, a basic login process is required to ensure a user's privacy. However, the login process results in an inconvenience to the user when there are multiple login processes for an SNS that becomes more finely subdivided.
To enter a password in the login process, a keyboard for a Personal Computer (PC), a QWERTY board for a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) terminal, a keypad button for a portable terminal, and the like are generally used. However, if a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is provided for any of those devices, it typically has a smaller size such that, when the LCD is also used as a touch screen for input, an input error is very likely to occur due to the small size and if touch sensitivity is not good. To address the foregoing problem, an integrated password scheme using an auto-fill function has been proposed.
FIGS. 1A through 1C are diagrams illustrating a screen during password input in a portable terminal of the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a portable terminal may be provided with a 3-set keyboard for entering a password. However, password input using a 3-set keyboard is difficult as it requires many keystrokes. Referring to FIG. 1B, during an authentication process, a user may be inconvenienced by having to input not only a password but also a username. Moreover, the user may be required to answer additional questions regarding the saving of and use of the password in the future. Referring to FIG. 1C, a user may input a password using a single key such as a numeric key. Input of a single key is easy when used for a one-digit password. However, because the keyboard has a limited number of keys, the degree of encryption is reduced in comparison to an input number.
Moreover, in an input scheme using motion input detected by a motion detector of a portable terminal, users' hand shakes may vary from user to user so that the input scheme may have an error according to the slight differences in degree of vibration. In this case, when a number of input attempts is higher than a predetermined level, the multiple inputs may cause a lock down of the device. Thus, a scheme having large input variation such as the motion input scheme is not suitable for password input requiring accuracy.